18 iunie 2012

Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation | Coursera: "This is an introduction to quantum computation, a cutting edge field that tries to exploit the exponential power of computers based on quantum mechanics. The course does not assume any prior background in quantum mechanics, and can be viewed as a very simple and conceptual introduction to that field." - CURS

About the Course

Quantum computation is a remarkable subject, and is based on one of the great computational discoveries that computers based on quantum mechanics are exponentially powerful. This course aims to make this cutting-edge material broadly accessible to undergraduate students, including computer science majors who do not have any prior exposure to quantum mechanics. The course will introduce qubits (or quantum bits) and quantum gates, the basic building blocks of quantum computers. It will cover the fundamentals of quantum algorithms, including the quantum fourier transform, period finding, and Shor's iconic quantum algorithm for factoring integers efficiently. The course will also explore the prospects for quantum algorithms for NP-complete problems, quantum cryptography and basic quantum error-correcting codes.

The course will not assume any prior background in quantum mechanics. Instead, it will use the language of qubits and quantum gates to introduce the basic axioms of quantum mechanics. This treatment of quantum mechanics has the advantage of both being conceptually simple and of highlighting the paradoxes at the heart of quantum mechanics. The most important pre-requisite for the course is a good understanding of basic linear algebra, including orthogonal bases, eigenvectors and eigenvalues.

Course Format

The course will last 8 weeks with two lectures in each week, totaling 16 lectures. There will be a weekly assignment which will either be computer-graded or peer-graded. There will be no exam.